It was interesting to watch Candide’s transformation through out the story. He went from blindly following Pangloss’s teaching, to developing his own arguments/views on the ways in which the world operates. He understood from the many misfortunes and adventures he underwent that everything does not always happen “for the best of all possible worlds”. Otherwise he could have just remained in Eldorado , where there were fortunes and delights galore. Rather, he chose to find his love Cunegonde and live with the rest of the characters on a farm. On this farm, however, misery seemed to overwhelm each one of them in its own way, shape, and form. This book seems to show the two extremes between happiness and misery, as there never seems to be an in between. Voltaire’s satirical work goes through great lengths to prove the downfalls of optimistic thinking that philosophers during that time period have had, and the foolishness of others to follow it.
Voltaire’s inclusion of Martin into the later chapters, helped show a great contrast between extreme positive and extreme negative thinking. Martin’s outlook on life is that it is and always has been a miserable experience for all those who endure it, and that men were hurting/killing each other since the beginning of time. His views are the complete opposite of those than Pangloss, as he has an entirely pessimistic outlook on life. But my question becomes, are these two extremes the only one’s that can possibly exist? Do people not live believing occasionally in one outlook, and at other times the other depending on their given situation?
